NSEL saga: EOW files chargesheet; doesn't name Jignesh Shah

The Economic Offences Wing has filed its first chargesheet in the National Spot Exchange Limited (NSEL) case today. The chargesheet spreads across 9000 pages, and lists police findings on the modus operandi of the accused, report CNBC-TV18's Ashmit Kumar and Aastha Maheshwari. The chargesheet was filed today before the Maharashtra Protection of Interest of Depositors (MPID) Act. All the five persons arrested in connection with this case have been named .This includes: Anjani Sinha, former managing director and chief executive officer; Jai Bahukhandi, former assistant vice-president of warehousing; Amit Mukherjee, former assistant vice-president of business development; Arun Sharma, director of Lotus Refineries, who had an outstanding of 159 crore that he owed NSEL and lastly, Nilesh Patel of NK Proteins have been named in the chargesheet.

The chargesheet says Anjani Sinha, who is considered the brain behind the settlement scam, received kickbacks from borrowers and he has owned upto activities through his affidavit.On the role of others arrested, the EOW says Amit Mukherjee facilitated loans and was responsible for issuing fake warehousing receipts. According to the chargesheet, Mukherjee receives kickbacks to the extent of Rs 12 crore from borrowers.

The chargesheet states Jai Bahukandhi was incharge of warehousing and has been charged with dealing in forged receipts ‘creating a web of fake stocks in warehouses.’ He is believed to have taken home kickbacks worth Rs 5 crore. Interestingly, the kickbacks for Jai Bahukandhi were not from borrowers but from senior management as well as promoters. This is something that is likely to be held against Jignesh Shah.

 But some of the most famous names of this scam, Jignesh Shah, founder, Financial Technologies; Joseph Massey, board member, NSEL, and Shreekant Javalgekar, chief executive officer, MCX have not been named in the chargesheet.